What Christina Hendricks Makes of Joan’s Epic Decision

We previously discussed Sunday night’s controversial episode of Mad Men earlier today, but that doesn’t mean we’re quite ready to table “The Other Woman” just yet. In a new interview with GQ, Christina Hendricks reveals that Matthew Weiner had been working on this storyline for years now, and that she had been nervous about what kind of response Joan’s decision to accept the indecent proposal would generate from the show’s fans. “But I think Matt’s writing and the way it was done shows what people will do out of necessity and for survival,” she says. “I thought it was beautifully written.”

As for whether Don could have changed Joan’s mind if he’d only caught her ahead of time? “I don’t know,” she says. “I don’t know that it would have. But I think that it meant a lot that one person out of all those people — not even Roger! — actually cared. A lot of what last season was about in terms of Joan was getting no respect. These new guys were in the office and they were treating her so poorly, she’s been there forever and she’s running the ship and she’s getting basically shit on every day at work. And here, this scenario comes up, and the father of her child doesn’t even say, absolutely not. So at least one person, out of this entire crew, cared.”

Head over to The Stream for more from Hendricks on Sunday night’s episode, including her thoughts on why Joan decided to go through with it, as well as what she’s learned about her character in Season 5.